Boyzlife stars Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden release charity single to support the elderly

Pop stars Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden have today announced they are releasing a new single to raise money for Age UK to support the elderly in the Coronavirus pandemic.

Duffy, who was part of 90s band Boyzone, and McFadden, who was part of Westlife, has been touring as “supergroup” Boyzlife for the past four years. Today, the pair announced they would be releasing a track- You Needed Me –  from their upcoming album early in order to raise money for the vulnerable.

All proceeds from the track will be donated to Age UK, which has been supporting isolated elderly members of the community since the UK went on lockdown last week.

The single, a new version of the number one Boyzone track released in 1999, has been recorded with the 84-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

It is part of their upcoming Strings Attached album, which is due for release May 29 and features nine UK number 1 songs from the Boyzone and Westlife catalogue recorded with the orchestra.

Speaking about the release, Duffy, 45, told Insider: “It was a number one hit for Boyzone in the late 90s. You Needed Me ended up being such a beautiful, beautiful song [when re-recorded]. It made our hair stand up on the backs of our necks.”

On why they chose to support Age UK, McFadden, 39, added: “The people who had been most effected by this have been the elderly – it is our way of giving back to them. We can’t leave our houses, but we wanted to do something. We were getting frustrated but it is hard to do something when mainly what you do is sing on stage. We were planning on bringing out this single now anyway. So it seemed like the right thing to do.”

Duffy and McFadden said they were currently both isolation with their families in Ireland and were trying to keep positive during the “horrendous” pandemic.

Duffy, who is isolating with his wife Lisa and two children Jay and Mia, said: “The four of us are making ht best of a bad situation. I am loving the quality time.”

McFadden, who is at home with his fiancee Danielle Parkinson, added: “In a time like this, you should try and take the opportunity to spend time with family. Life will go back to normal and it won’t be until then that you will realise that you missed an opportunity to spend time with your family.”

Duffy had six UK number 1 singles during his music career with Boyzone – with 16 out of 17 single releases making the top 5. The band, which also included Ronan Keating, Shane Lynch, Mikey Graham and the late Stephen Gately, had five number 1 albums with worldwide sales of over 25 million.

With Westlife, McFadden had four number one albums and sold 30 million records.

Boyzlife was formed in 2016 and have performed to over 50,000 fans with more UK dates scheduled for later this year.  https://boyzlife.co/